Woods shoots 74 in Round 2 at Genesis

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Excitement surrounded Tiger Woods’ finish to his first round of The Genesis Invitational. That was replaced by consternation over the cut line as he played his final holes Friday.

Woods found three bunkers on his last four holes, making bogey each time to shoot 74 and put him on the cut line when he signed his scorecard. He sits at 1-over 143, making his fate for the weekend uncertain until the cut line becomes clearer towards the end of the round.

He lost two strokes on the greens Friday, missing five putts inside 10 feet. He made just two of his five attempts from 4-8 feet, a day after he missed just one of his six tries from that range.

“I blocked a lot of putts early,” Woods said, “and this is probably the highest score I could have shot today. … They weren't very hard putts, I just hit bad putts and obviously had a very bad finish, too.”

Because of Woods’ outsized role in the game, each round he plays is imbued with extra significance. The three consecutive birdies that he made at the end of Thursday’s round – his first in official competition since July – generated optimism about his continued progress from his 2021 car accident. But his play a day later was a reminder about the significant hurdles he will always face.

Woods’ second round was always going to be a challenge, with his 7:24 a.m. tee time coming just 14 hours after he walked off Riviera’s 18th green to chants of his name from a crowd energized by his trio of birdies. This week in Los Angeles has been cold and wet, as well, the kind of weather that does no favors for Woods’ surgically-repaired body.

But he exceeded expectations with his start to the second round, giving himself birdie putts inside 10 feet on the first two holes. They were opportunities for Woods to extend his birdie streak to five in a row and pull within three of the lead. He missed them both, however, and bogeyed his next two holes, as well.

Birdies on Nos. 14 – which he came within inches of acing – and 17 returned him to even par for the day, however. The birdie on 17, where his 180-yard approach flew through the wind and stopped 3 feet from a flag tucked behind a deep bunker, was his last of the day. He made six consecutive pars before his difficult finish.

It started at the par-3 sixth, where his tee shot finished across the green from the back-left pin, leaving the hole’s trademark bunker in his way. Trying to roll his ball around the hazard, he putted it into the trap en route to a bogey. He had to pitch out of a fairway bunker on the eighth hole and dumped his approach on his last hole into a bunker short of the green. After his third shot ran through the green, Woods lipped out a chip for par that would have ensured he made the cut.

“I could have easily got off to a very hot start and I did not,” he said, “and then middle part of the round I could have turned it around a little bit and I did not.”